Description

The second in the series features campaigns in Lybia, the Persian Gulf, The Middle East and Vietnam, making for a total of 250,000 miles of potential action and danger. Primary and secondary aerial and ground-based targets must be destroyed on each of these. You are armed with a cannon, AMRAAM long-range air-to-air missile, Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missile, and the Maverick air-to-ground missile.

11 camera angles including internal and external views of the plane exist. To help new players there is a training mode, with options to disable crashes and automate take-off and landing. Enemy AI is responsive, but a targeting computer helps you take them out before they can do it to you. The game incorporates two "Director's Modes" which cuts away from your cockpit to highlight special events occurring elsewhere in the game world, like enemy base launching fighters, SAM sites launching SAMs, and your missiles hitting the target.

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Trivia

Amiga version

The Amiga loading screen for this game was an overscan image, which was a first for MicroProse.

Base

In F-15 Strike Eagle II you can be followed all the way back to base by enemy jets - but don't expect any help, such as planes being scrambled or anti-aircraft fire - you're on your own! They just don't seem to care down there on the ground.

Bugs

In the PC version if you ran out of fuel far from base, you could fly upside down and your F-15 would 'fall' upwards, so the player could make it all the way back to base without crashing. Not only that, but enemy missiles would not hurt your plane when flying this way.

Cover

Bill Stealey was most annoyed when he discovered that MicroProse had commissioned different box art for the Amiga/ST version of the game, although he did admit that the painting was pretty excellent.

Development

The conversion to the Amiga/ST was being developed as Bush senior started the first invasion of Iraq. There was serious consideration of tying in the Amiga/ST version to Desert Storm, but fear of a publicity backlash put the dampers on that.

F-19 Stealth Fighter

If you have F-19 Stealth Fighter, you can copy two of the game worlds over and play it with F-15 SE2, replacing two of the existing game worlds.

Voice

One of the first games, if not the first, that managed to playback
a digital audio sample on the AdLib (remember: the
AdLib only had a FM chip and no DAC). It was a voice at
the beginning of the game which said "Strike Eagle, clear for takeoff". Microprose used that hack in M1 Tank Platoon and Stunt Track Racer around the same time.